Talk:Syracuse University

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Syracuse University is part of WikiProject Syracuse, New York, a project which aims to coordinate work for and expand coverage of Syracuse, New York and related subjects on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.

	To-do list for Syracuse University:	edit  · history  · watch  · refresh
Add more modern photos (check Flickr for example [make sure to do creative commons w/ commercial use search]) Expand history, update timeline to present (SU's history doesn't stop at 1980!)
Priority 1 (top)

Contents 1 Amartya Sen 2 Bias 3 Notable Alumni 4 Stephen Crane 5 Introduction 6 Urban and Suburban 7 Copyvio 8 Historic Photos 9 Layout 10 Questionable Numbers 11 University People 12 University Seal 13 Coalition of Museum and Art Centers 14 Daughter Articles 15 What caused the downturn?

[edit] Amartya Sen

Mr. Sen the Nobel laureate is NOT an SU alumnus. To the clown who keeps on adding his name to the list, DON'T.

I moved the all-century basketball thing to the Syracuse University Orange article. It's too long and technical for this article. newkai

[edit] Bias

An anon. poster posted this today:

The University is set on a beautiful, residential campus with buildings ranging from the historic to the contemporary. As Syracuse University is situated on a hill overlooking downtown Syracuse, students enjoy the traditional college feel, while realizing the social and recreational opportunities of a medium-sized city.

The text I have bolded is anti-Wikipedia in my opinion, as it is not neutral. I have changed it... Hope it's better. newkai 01:17, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)

RELATED QUESTION: Rather than simply describing the university as "elite" or "prestigious," which doesn't sound very neutral, why not simply present its concrete accomplishments -- US News Ranking, number of Rhodes Scholars, and so on?

Look at the pages for Harvard or Williams, for example. If a school is "prestigious," its stats ought to speak for themselves.

Unfortunately some people keep putting stuff like that in there. Yeah, ratings would be a good idea.

[edit] Notable Alumni

Is there a good way to arrange these names? I'd assume alphabetical unless we want to do it by prestiege or make break them up into their sciences. But seriously, Lexington Steel over Stephen Crane? haha --Poorpete 14:10, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, it'd have to be alphabetical... maybe sub-broken into popularity by... Google results!? Hahah. newkai 16:27, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I think it should be listed under categories. See the Georgetown and Boston College articles for examples. We also need better looking pictures.

Well I started it off with alphabetical. Categories can come later, i did a draft of one, but didn't know where astronauts would go, other than in their own small category. --Poorpete 20:23, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I suggest creating a new article for Syracuse University Alumni. This list is far too long and quite daunting for a general reader. It takes up too much space. --Noetic Sage 20:25, 13 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Stephen Crane

I have re-added the following text after Crane's name: He stayed only one semester, later admiting he came "more to play baseball than to study." [1]

This time I added the source, which is a Syracuse.edu chronology. -- Mwanner 15:44, August 24, 2005 (UTC)

It doesn't matter what Crane's intentions in college were. Completely irrevelant to the list. Add it to the trivia section if you absolutely have to.

It's releveant enough that Syracuse saw fit to mention it. If the note comes off again, I'll remove Crane from the list of Alumni. After all, a person who attended only one semester really doesn't count as an alumnus. Mwanner 21:44, August 26, 2005 (UTC)

Look up the definition of the term "alumnus".

OK--

alumnus. n : a person who has received a degree from a school (high school or college or university) [syn: alumna, alum, graduate, grad] Source: WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University

alumnus, noun [C] plural alumni MAINLY US. Someone who has left a school, college or university after completing their studies there: the alumni of St MacNissi's College Several famous alumni have agreed to help raise money for the school's restoration fund. (from Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)

a·lum·nus, n. pl. a·lum·ni (-n) A male graduate or former student of a school, college, or university. Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition.

Note the emphasis on graduation. While I will grant that one is technically an alumnus of a school that one has merely attended (presumably for a matter of a day or an hour), surely no prestigious university would want to take credit for an alumnus who attended only one semester. Mwanner 00:26, August 29, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Introduction

Hello, a 1997 SU grad here. I have just worked on the introduction a bit, to give readers a sense of the features of the central campus that make SU special. I propose adding a few highlights about SU's architectural features, and on the beautiful, landscaped quadrangle that we all remember so well from our student days.... The University is set on a mostly residential campus, which features an eclectic mix of buildings, ranging from nineteenth-century Romanesque structures to contemporary buildings designed by renowned architects such as I.M. Pei. The center of campus, with its grass quadrangle, landscaped walkways, and outdoor sculptures offers students the amenities of a traditional college experience. At the same time, since the university overlooks downtown Syracuse, students can enjoy the social, cultural, and recreational opportunities of a medium-sized city.NatMor 18:52, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Urban and Suburban

How is this possible for the campus location? 67.101.124.102 17:26, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

The Main Campus can be considered urban, the South Campus is suburban -newkai | talk | contribs 17:59, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Copyvio

The "History" section is labeled "(Excerpt from the Syracuse University Campus Plan of 2003)". It is therefore presumably copied word for word from another source and is as such a copyright violation. I'm deleting the entire section on these grounds. Anyone who wants to re-write the history section is welcome to do so, but you must write it in your own words! Angr (talk • contribs) 21:38, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

I'll put up a brief timeline until someone wants to take the time to write a comprehensive history. -PietyHIll

[edit] Historic Photos

Somebody's going way overboard with the historic photos... They're shifting present photos, designed to be in a certain section, completely around. I'm going to contain them somehow, soon. -newkai | talk | contribs 02:15, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

I think the spacing issues will resolve itself when more text is added to the article, thus pushing some sections down to align with some of the pictures.

[edit] Layout

The new layout with the gallery isn't very appealing. There are too many white spaces and the pictures in the gallery are too small. I'm going to change it back to the way it was with some modifications. -PietyHill

The superfluous number of historic photos is also not very appealing. I'm going to go out on the next clear day and take some up-to-date ones. -newkai | talk | contribs 19:50, 14 May 2006 (UTC)

Concur that there are too many historic photos. The page I am seeing now in FireFox is really unappealing. JJL 15:56, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

I agree. It's not only the outdated nature of the photos but the fact they are all of buildings. They're very nice buildings but what about pictures of people - students, faculty, staff, etc.? --ElKevbo 16:08, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

I think the historic photos give the article a nice level of depth and gravitas (particularly in the history section) but you may be right about there being too many of them. I am really impressed with the article on Boston College and would like to see this article take on a similar form if possible. PietyHill 23:16, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

I have also got to say that the historic photos are nice, but seem rather irrelevant; if a photo of a team is necessary, I would think it would be either a photo of the first team established or a photo of the current team. The same goes for both the Daily Orange staff and the fraternity/sorority pictures. -- Gizzakk 03:44, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

Seriously, they make it look like a former university, rather than a current one! -newkai | talk | contribs 01:58, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

I think when Newkai adds his batch of current photos, it will all even out and create a nice balance between the past and the present. Just don't forget to use a wide angle lens.

Well, the weather was miserable all last week, and now unfortunately it doesn't look like I'll be able to before leaving the country for a couple months. So we'll have to find another solution. -newkai | talk | contribs 18:28, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

Can we replace the current unflattering picture of the quad with something nicer? Perhaps a picture of the quad with Bourdelle's "Herakles" statue in the foreground?

Another option is to create a seperate history page and put all the historic photos there. PietyHill 20:08, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Questionable Numbers

I'd just like to point out two possible errors - the year for the first women's basketball game is listed as 1898 and the score for the 1915 Rose Bowl squad is listed as 331 to 16. -- Gizzakk 03:37, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

I think the editor meant total score for the season as a ratio. -newkai | talk | contribs 01:59, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] University People

The main Syracuse University article exceed the recommended length set by Wikipedia. Thus, I have taken the notable people off the main article and placed it in its own article entitled List of Syracuse University People. This follows a trend set by other university articles such as Yale and Carnegie Mellon. -- Shoughto 05:31, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] University Seal

What happened to the black and white seal? Who replaced it with this horrendous looking orange and blue seal?

[edit] Coalition of Museum and Art Centers

Badly written. Please fix and rewrite or delete this section.

It does sound like a mission statement PietyHill 20:55, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Daughter Articles

I created some daughter articles under the student life section for "student organizations", "greek life" and "traditions" because the main article was getting a little too long. PietyHill 21:29, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] What caused the downturn?

Syracuse U seems like an excellent institution at the turn of 20th century. Now few people even heard of it. What happened? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.97.101.139 (talk • contribs).